Never Judge a Book by Its Cover

There is a point when writing a book when the bulk of the creative work has been finished, and a first draft is born. It's not that much different from a roller coaster ride. In a roller coaster, the ride begins with a long climb. Tension builds. Anticipation rises. Blood-pressure rockets to unhealthy levels. In book-writing, the creative energy culminates as well; perhaps not quite as exciting as a roller coaster but with similar biological side effects.

What comes next, interesting, is very different for writing and roller coasters. The point where a roller coaster topples over the apex marks the beginning of a fast and terrific ride. In book writing, when everything is finally pulled together and the lose ends are knotted into literary drama, the author topples over the edge into a very slow, hardly terrific and indeed quite boring series of edits, re-writes, proofs and draft after draft after draft after draft after draft... ok, you get the point.

I find that its usually at about this point that I distract myself with dreams of publication, big advances, best-seller lists, and book signings. To make this seem real, I like to print my drafts with working covers and titles, almost as if they are already completed and published works.

It helps me to re-gain the excitement, to keep some of that creative energy flowing, to sustain during long hours of copy-editing. This is the current working cover for Cluck: A Murder Most Fowl. This working title (like the working cover) will almost definitely change, but I thought I'd share it because I'm rather fond of it. I'm an amateur graphic artist at best, but I think I like it. The new cover and subtitle are in an attempt at making the book a bit more approachable and less sinister.

[Edit: I left the old cover on the books page for reference.